Here is a quick tutorial on how to paint an abstract acrylic painting, super fast:
The paint colors are a fairly expensive brand of acrylic called Golden, probably about $80 worth of paint, but if you want to go cheap, could try Liquitex paint instead:
Titanium White, Carbon or Mars Black, Thalo Turquoise, Quinacradone Magenta and Quin Violet, Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Oxide, Green Gold.
Squeeze out on your palette, or, use a pallette knife to put dabs of the colors above on your glass pallette. Mix a dab of turquoise with some white, and then repeat another dab of turquoise with a little more white, so that you have a few different levels of turquoise.
On a 16 x 20 canvas, using a large 4 or 5 inch regular house paint flat brush and dip in water, then squeeze excess water out, and swipe different levels of turquoise over the whole lower 2/3rds of canvas in wide strokes and paint the sides of the canvas as well.
Use a spray bottle of water to spray the turquoise so that big drips dribble down and make an effect in it, and dab off some areas and leave others. Now use a one inch rounded bristle brush and dip into oxide yellow and paint a few streaks in the sky, alternate with magenta and a little violet and then dip into titanium white and blend the sunset look in wavy or slightly slanted cloud patterns. Paint the sides of canvas similarly. Use a hairdryer on low to lightly air dry the thin first layers. Use old empty tuna cans upside down over paint to keep them from drying out while doing other things.
Now, mix a tiny bit of black and a little dab of ultramarine blue and brush a 2 inch flat brush in streaks in the water, use the spray bottle of water and let big drips run down, and dab a bit so you like what it looks like.
If you have an old t shirt, take a strip of it and wad it up and use it to brush upwards in the streaks of ultramarine blue/black in the water so that it looks like reeds.
I had no idea how fast a painting could come together with acrylics. But you've got to have brush cleaners and probably want gloves on and use acrylic or glass palette and a straight edge razor to scrape/clean the paint off at the end, once acrylic dries, its a glob you can't get off. I'm still not sure how they clean acrylic up - still learning.
Some different student samples. Anyway, abstracts can be super fast and easy - its about not having too many colors and doing wide broad paint strokes with plain flat house paint brushes mostly, and spraying water for effects. No real talent needed. And, the simple squiggles and wipes and dabs and sprays create your effects.
You can also dab colors on the canvas and use a squeegie and pull straight down and get streaks, then paint other curves in different directions on top.
Brush cleaning tips: Use various jars and just enough water to cover the bristles of each different brush while painting. Wash with regular dish soap and warm water. squeeze all water out and dry vertically with brush down, using clips to hang them to dry.
